CoffeeBreak

LeatherBalls: Thanks very much for doing this. I'm sure it required tremendous effort and coordination. This will be something the boys and their parents remember for a long long time.

Great questions. I was wondering the same thing. Sometimes things are way overstated aren't they?

Yes it is true. He is taking the Forrest job.

Eagleville and Cascade are good teams -- not one man shows. Cascade had a great run. Eagleville is senior-laden and have top-notch pitching to go with pretty solid defense and a line-up that can put the ball in play. Kudos to Riverside for overcoming a lot of adversity this year. Should be a good one today. Hope both teams play their best.

The toughest especially when you consider Eagleville had 2 regular season losses in the district and Cascade had 4 (I think). Great pitching in the district from the teams that didn't make it out of district prepped Eagleville and Cascade for their post-season run.

You going to post the teams on here....

Once again it is clear that District 9A is at the very top of the districts in the state. Friendship and Decatur-Riverside have great programs but they do not play in strong districts. Eagleville and Cascade still alive in the state tourney. Eagleville lost a couple of games in district play and Cascade finished 4th. Both teams playing well at this point. Good luck to both and thanks for representing the district so well.

Agree. Who's next?

Rippy vs MacDugal?

9A sweeps again. WHH played Eagleville a close game. They were a worthy opponent. Cascade run rules Nash Christian11-0.

Congrats to all the 9A teams. Cascade and Eagleville will (once again) represent the District from this point forward. Both teams have better than average pitching and have been tested with competitive schedules over the course of the season. They swept 10A last year in the region games. We'll see if it 10A can pull one out this year.

If they get past Forrest today they can probably use Smith again on Tuesday on a limited pitch count (maybe even out of the pen).

4 teams left.... Moore County plays Cascade in the winners bracket. Eagleville plays Forrest in an elimination game. Both games are on Monday.

Single A will always take a backseat to AAA. It's one of those things that ain't fair but it is what it is. Both pitchers last night could pitch for any high school regardless of size in the state. I thought Smith started off a little stronger than Carkuff but that Carkuff finished stronger. He was very good the last 2-3 inngs. High stakes emotional game caused a few errors on defense. 20 strike outs between the two pitchers.

Let's face it. Single A teams are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to umpire assignments. It's a tough job, many of the fans are not objective and make sport of riding the umpires, a lot of the umps are up there in terms of age as well. I've seen inconsistent strike zones on a consistent basis. Haven't seen blatant favoritism too many times however.

Redkuda where u been?

Cascade vs Eagleville will be Carkuff vs smith. I think it was a 2-1 game last time. MTCS vs Moore will be another rematch: Roberts vs Bateman. This was a 4-2 come from behind MTCS victory last time.

Losers bracket is messed up in my opinion. The coaches voted on it so I don't know about the dynamics of the meeting. A "ladder" bracket was suggested by someone but it was voted down. Between today and Friday there will be 5 losers. They seed the losers brackets based on regular season finish and ignore the teams that actually won a tournament game. Bad idea and bad result in my opinion. Currently, Huntland, Forrest, and Community are in the losers bracket after losing a first round tournament game. They will be joined by the two teams that lose tomorrow and the bottom four seeds of that group will play the first round of the losers bracket with the highest seed getting a pass to the next round of games. No reward for winning a first round tournament game. Forrest lost a first round game and may actually get a pseudo-bye in the losers bracket over the #4 seed who won in the first round and the #6 seed (who put Forrest in the losers bracket).

Friday's games at Eagleville. 4:30 MTCS vs Moore County 7:00 Cascade vs Eagleville

Cascade beats Community 10-0; Moore County beats Huntland 4-2; MTCS beats Forrest 6-3 in 9 inngs.

Thursday's Games (with regular season results): Moore County vs. Huntland. Moore County won the regular season series back in March 5-2 and 13-0. Forrest vs. MTCS. Regular season series was a split in early April. Forrest won at their place 4-1 and MTCS won the rematch 5-0. Cascade vs. Community. Regular season series in early April was a split. Cascade won at their place 2-1 and Community won at their place 5-1. Close games that are decided by a handful of plays (or calls) would not surprise me. Pitching and Defense always rise to the fore-front come tournament time. It may hinge on who can get a bunt down and advance runners. Do teams pitch their ace with hopes of bringing them back on Monday or Tuesday? Does Cascade save Carkuff for Friday vs Eagleville and rely on Rippy to get the win over Community on Thursday? I've heard Forrest threw Brewer on Monday but pulled him before his pitch count got too high -- does he go Thursday or Friday? MC seems to be the hottest team coming in with 3 wins in a row. Is Grissom able to pitch effectively? Looking forward to some great baseball.

Tomorrow's 9A Tournament Games: Game 1: Cascade plays Community at Cascade 5:30. Winner plays Eagleville on Friday (Game 4). Game 2: Forrest plans MTCS at Forrest at 5:00. Winner plays the winner of Game 3 on Friday. Game 3: Moore County plays Huntland at 4:30 at Moore County. Winner plays the winner of Game 2 on Friday. Friday's 9A Tournament Games: Game 5: Winner of Game 2 plays Winner of Game 3 at Eagleville at 4:30. Game 4: Eagleville plays Winner of Game 1 on Friday at Eagleville at 7:00.

You are correct. If the teams records were all the same they would look to who beat the highest seed and/or who lost to the lowest seed. At some point I think it gets to the old coin toss. Cascade and Moore County each beat Eagleville. I think the season shows that Eagleville is the strongest team. 2-6 are capable if they can put together a couple of good games. Cascade and MTCS have faltered down the stretch. Moore County has stepped it up. As Bobby Knight says, "Victory favors the team that makes the fewest mistakes." I think that will prove true in the tournament.

Tournament Seedings: 1. Eagleville 2. Moore County 3. Forrest 4. Cascade 5. Community 6. MTCS 7. Huntland On Thursday 1 gets a bye, 2 plays 7, 3 plays 6, 4 plays 5. Double Elimination.

Last regular season district games today. Eagleville plays Huntland. I think Eagleville has the #1 seed locked up and Huntland has the #7 seed locked as well. Moore County plays Forrest. A Moore County win would put them in the #2 spot, Forrest in the 3, and Cascade in the 4. A loss and they could go to the #4 seed and Forrest gets the #2 seed (idle Cascade gets the 3 in that case). Community plays MTCS. Winner gets the 5 seed and the loser gets the 6 seed. Tourney starts Thursday.